Orkla’s HR strategy aims to support the achievement of the company’s business objectives. Activities are focused primarily on recruitment, development and efforts to retain key individuals in the workforce and align them with the Group’s business goals. Furthermore, the strategy aims at developing individual capabilities and organisational capacity and competence with a view to securing the basis for the company’s continued growth.
In order for such a strategy to succeed, it must be adapted to the company’s structure, business composition and management model. Orkla’s structure is highly diversified, and there are few links between the business areas. The Group’s multi-local model imposes constraints on the way decisions are made and the way day-to-day operations are carried out in the companies. The multi-local model also determines how responsibility is devided between the Group's and the local companies' central HR bodies.
The content of Orkla’s HR strategy can besummed up in three main objectives:
- Attracting and recruiting the best talent
- Developing, motivating and retaining good employees
- Building a strong organisation
Attracting and recruiting the best talent
Attracting and recruiting talented individuals is one of the most critical processes at Orkla. This applies to executive management staff and other key persons, as well as to specialists and skilled operators. There must be emphasis on giving all employees a thorough introduction to the Group’s work processes, demands and expectations.
In a company that operates in a dynamic environment, ensuring that the workforce is correctly dimensioned at all times is also an important task. At times, this means downsizing the workforce and terminating employment relationships. Phasing out is as important a process as recruitment.
Developing, motivating and retaining good employees
Developing the Group’s overall competence is crucial to strengthening its competitiveness. This means continuously developing specialised expertise and leadership skills, and creating a working environment in which our employees can participate in decision-making processes and make optimal use of their expertise in their interaction with colleagues. Substantial resources are therefore devoted to realising this objective. The focus is primarily on the on-the-job training that each employee receives. This training is supplemented by a range of training programmes run by the Orkla Academies that are designed to provide the companies with crucial competence in leadership and important specialised fields of expertise. In addition toenhancing the participants’ technical and professional skills, these programmes are important arenas for fostering shared attitudes, common working methods and a corporate culture that transcends inter-company borders.
A number of the Group companies provide systematic technical training for operators, with a view to ensuring safe and efficient operations and increasing the company's adaptability. Our companies, including those in the food industry, need skilled workers in order to succeed in the future. We must address this challenge proactively to ensure that the companies have access to sufficient competent manpower in the years ahead.
Incentives and reward systems that are competitive in relation to the employment conditions otherwise offered on the employment market are a key factor in employee retention. However, they are not enough. The Group seeks to build a culture of openness that offers opportunities for personal development. For Orkla it’s important to ensure that each employee is systematically followed up, with emphasis on goals and results. Special tools have been developed to make sure that our employees benefit as intended from such development processes.
Building a strong organisation
Orkla’s further development will depend on how well the Group succeeds in building a sustainable organisation. This means combining good leadership with a high level of expertise and a sound, externally competitive, culture.
We work towards this goal by continuously emphasising efforts to define our fundamental principles, as formulated in the company’s Goals and Values. In sum, Goals and Values establishes the basic criteria for the way we want our employees and management staff to conduct themselves.
The multi-local model is flexible enough to include cross-functional arenas and networks that promote learning across our business areas. Annual Leadership Audits identify the Group’s management capacity, and shared leadership skills are built through our Senior Management Programme (SMP) in an inter-company, international environment.
Finally, our human resource development efforts aim to promote organisational learning. In the final analysis, organisational learning will be the decisive measure of the success of our HR strategy.